Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-02
DEFIANCE OF COURTS.
STATUS OF HYDRAULIC MINING
AGAINST INJUNCTIONS.
Important Statement of City En2i
neer Bassett-Results Predict
ed-Remedy Suggested.

statements contain tile result OF my ODSer-
walton and views for the past few months :
First, then, as to Plumas county, where
the recent violent demonstrations have
taken place, and where, probably, at the
present time, the most bitter feeling exists
as consequence OF injunctions against
hydraulic mining. In that county within
the last year the owners of some fifty-three
mines, operated by the hydraulic process,
have been enjoined in consequence of suits
brought by Suffer county. Quite a num-
Der of these mines are not very extensive,
and send down but little debris annually,
not having yet been sufficiently developed
Most OF the hydraulic mines in Plumas
county, too are owned by men of small
means, who have had to depend entirely
upon the profits of their mining operations
for living. As consequence, therefore,
of the shutting down of these mines the
owners have had to decide between aband-
oniDg their property-the result often of
the labor of many years-or to attempt the
experiment of operating them in violation
of the injunctions of the Courts. As many
of them can see only one side of the pic
ture, or, if they do see it, look only to their
own interests, not caring what damage they
may intiict on property along the streams
below them, or for the injury to naviga-
ton, they have decided to pursue the less
commendable course, and are now defying
the Courts, and doing all in their power to
prevent the officers of the Government
from obtaining the information necessary
for bringing actions TO prevent the deposit
ing of debris in the streams
The hydraulic miners in that section
have also, quite generally, succeeded in
creating the impression among the quartz
and drift miners that their interests are as
much imperiled as their own. As the
section is an isolated one, having but little
commercial intercourse with the outside
world, the whole community is almost. en-
tirely dependent on the mining industry.
Professional men, merchants, mechanics,
and even the farmers (of whom there are
a considerable number) relv almost ex-
clusively for their prosperity upon the
money placed in circulation in prosecut-
ing these quartz, drift and hydraulic min
ing operations. Consequently, believing
this, not only are the owners of the hy-
drauiic mines and the laborers employed
therein very much exasperated on account
of the injunctions, but likewise also they
are felt by the whole community to be
<atal to the general prosperity. Feeling as
| they do, they act almost unanimously upon
anything which will enable them still
further 10 prosecute hydraulic mining.
For instance, the sending of what they
term "spies among them, whether they
go as the agents of the Government or OF
the Anti-Debris Association. is looked upon
as an unwarranted proceeding, having for
its object the institution of still further
| measures to compel obedience to the laws
| and what they denounce as the unjust
mandates of the Courts; and the intimi-
dating and boycotting of these "spies "
becomes the common business of the COM
munity.
However, not all the hydraulic miners
have as yet set the law at defiance. So far
as | know, only few are doing so. These
have been encouraged, and in large part
instigated by set of constituencies LAWYERS
who, for fee, pretend to advise their
clients how they can evade the law and
avoid punishment. But of those who
thus defy the law all except two or three
are of foreign birth, who, in this as in
other things, have little respect for or
knowledge of our laws. Two or three are
the most ignorant and bullheaded of Irish
men few others are Italians scarcely
able to speak the language of this country,
while very few are persons who should
know better than to set themselves up in
opposition to the laws of their country.
For the purpose then of assisting to pro-
tect those lawless foreigners, and a few
others in their lawless acts, a whole COM
munity allows itself to be put in an atti-
tude of defiance to our Courts of law, and
lends its aid, by boycottlng and intimida-
ton, to a policy of obstruction, hoping
thereby to prevent the agents of the Gov
eminent from collecting the data necessary
n a nnf Of A Of s
And the people of the valley are expected
to submit for the benefit of these stubborn
few, to having ourrivers and bays filled up,
navigation destroyed, and our cities and
farming lands buried in sand and slickens.
To be sure, only small amount of hy-
draulic mining is now being carried on in
that section, and the amount of debris sent
down is correspondingly small. But those
who have not yet started up, in defiance of
the Courts, are watching the result, and if
1t is seen to be safe to pursue such policy.
the balance of the mines will also soon be
in operation and the condition of Feather
river become as bad as it was before the
litigation against the miners commenced.
Before these suits were instituted, the
Feather river was a very muddy stream.
Now, of course, with but a few of the
mines in operation, the river at Marvsville
is not highly discolored, and the miners
operating thereon point to this fact as
evidence that they are doing no material
damage, and consider that as long as too
few of them defy the Courts to make the
effects of their work result in material
damage, they should be let alone.
A favorite argument with the hydraulic
miners on the headwaters of Feather river
is that their mines are so remote that the
debris cannot reach the Sacramento valley
4tsRfs
age. With them nothing is debris ex-
cept gravel, cobblestones and powders.
and though they acknowledge that the
finer materials are carried in suspension
by the waters from the immediate vicinity
of their mines, they at one time insisted
that these finer materials were stored in
the river canyons between their mines and
Oroville. But since an examination of the
river and its various forks from the mines
down disclosed the fact that there has been
no such storage of the sand and slickens.
they insist that the fact that no such ma
terials are found in any great quantity.
proves that therefore these finer materials
have not gone down.
The Feather river and its tributaries.
from the points where the debris from the
mines is delivered into them down to Oro-
vile, flow through rock-bo CANYONS,
cut by the agency of the water out of the
solid stone, and having heavy ard con-
tinuous grade for the entire distance. And
these miners refuse to acknowledge the
fact that debris deposited at the upper ends
of these canyons is sure to be discharged at
the lower. The truth is that from many of
the mines large quantities OF even cobble-
stones and powders are discharged into
these canyons, and such is the enormous
pulverizing force 10 which they are sub
jected as they are churned along down
stream during flood stages of the river.
knocking against each other and against
the sides and bottom of the canyon. that
before they reach Orovilie they are ground
to an almost impalpable powder, capable
OF being carried forward by even the slower
currents of the lower rivers to as far as the
bay of San Francisco. Under these cir
cumstances the greater remoteness gives
the greater length of rock-bound CANYON
through which the materials have to
travel, and these canyons then become as
enormous arastras in which to more finely
reduce the debris deposited in them.
1t is claimed, too, by the hydraulic miners
on the Feather river that the damage that
has resulted from hydraulic mining has
been almost entirely caused by the debris
from the Yuba river. and tc only small
degree has it been added TO by them. This